India.Arie Says Her Spotify Protest Isn't About Joe Rogan: "I Felt Like I Was Being Disrespected"

She does however condemn his "conscious" racism

BY Megan LaPierrePublished Feb 15, 2022

After joining the likes of Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, David Crosby and Stephen Stills in the Spotify exodus spurred by Neil Young, India.Arie is elaborating on her reasons for not wanting her music on the streaming platform — which actually have very little to do with Joe Rogan.

The R&B superstar appeared on an episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah yesterday (February 14) to discuss her decision to remove her music from Spotify, which she referred to as the "biggest player but lowest payer."

"My conversation has been about Spotify and its treatment of artists," the singer born India Arie Simpson said when Noah asked if Rogan was her mortal enemy.

"I have to say that asking for my music to be pulled from Spotify in protest doesn't actually serve me," she elaborated [via Rolling Stone], "but I did it in protest just because I felt like my dignity was being … I felt like I was being disrespected."

Simpson proceeded to break down the way artists are compensated during the streaming era.

"What happens is, they say, 'Well, this is just how it is; this is just what you get paid," she explained. "But the labels and streaming platforms are making those decisions. And so they're telling you, 'This is what we've decided, this is what you get,'" arguing that both record labels and streaming services have been given too much say in the valuation of artists' work

"You listen [on Spotify], we get .003 to .005 percent of a penny," the artist continued. "It's been making the professions of producer and songwriter unliveable for a lot of people."

She added: "A lot of people are tired of even having the debate of whether or not someone should get paid for their work."

Coming back to Rogan, she generously went on to explain the difference between conscious and unconscious racism.

"I have learned in my life to make room and forgiveness for people who are unconsciously racist, because our whole society is built on racist concepts — so if you're born into it, if you're not actively working to not be racist, then you have some of it in you," the singer-songwriter said.

"If you know you're doing it and you keep doing it, I would say that is a racist. For me, when I think about Joe Rogan, I think that he is being consciously racist."

Previously, Arie cited Rogan's "language around race" as equally problematic to his perpetuation of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccination, bringing attention to his racist history by sharing a compilation video of the podcast host using the N-slur and comparing a movie theatre in a Black neighbourhood to The Planet of the Apes.

Watch the musician's appearance on The Daily Show below.



Recently, Arcade Fire's Will Butler penned an essay on the devaluation of music in the streaming age in response to Spotify's allegiance to Rogan.

Latest Coverage